Karen Carlson

Karen Carlson

@sloopie72.bsky.social

And do not call the tortoise unworthy because she is not something else. - Walt Whitman I read a lot. Then I blog about it so I don't forget. https://sloopie72.wordpress.com/

278 followers237 following1.3K posts

Karen Carlson
@sloopie72.bsky.social

"He wanted the search to be over." Thoughts on reading Nathan Blum's short story, "Here Now" about teenage love complicated by frequent relocations, from #BestAmericanShortStories2026 sloopie72.wordpress.com/2026/10/27/b...

sloopie72.wordpress.comBASS 2026: Nathan Blum, “Here Now” from Ploughshares #163In the end, I am far less compelled by the notions I set out to explore than by those elements of a story that seemed to have sprung up on their own. I believe that farmers and gardeners call them …
Karen Carlson
@sloopie72.bsky.social

“Things don't need to last forever.” Thoughts on reading Aimee Bender's playful fairy tale "The Tailor and the King" from #BestAmericanShortStories2026 sloopie72.wordpress.com/2026/10/25/b...

sloopie72.wordpress.comBASS 2026: Aimee Bender, “The Tailor and the King” from Fairy Tale Review #20The story begins with a tailor in a town…. That week, the richest merchant in town had ripped his pants in the ass, and the tailor sewed them up and returned them, and then the lady-in-waiting’s ar…

Karen Carlson reposted

Diane Tucker
@theshymuseumgoer.com

#ArtHistory 🗃️ 🐡 Weekend vibes... 2,000 years ago, a bronze masterpiece immortalized a young girl playfully chasing a partridge. Stolen from an archaeological site in southern Spain and recently recovered, the sculpture is now on display at Madrid's Museo Arqueológico Nacional. (my 📸)

Karen Carlson
@sloopie72.bsky.social

"I invite you to come along on my idiosyncratic journey through what I consider the world's most loved and lovable language." Thoughts on reading Dianne Hale's book, 𝘓𝘢 𝘉𝘦𝘭𝘭𝘢 𝘓𝘪𝘯𝘨𝘶𝘢: 𝘔𝘺 𝘓𝘰𝘷𝘦 𝘈𝘧𝘧𝘢𝘪𝘳 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘐𝘵𝘢𝘭𝘪𝘢𝘯, 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘞𝘰𝘳𝘭𝘥’𝘴 𝘔𝘰𝘴𝘵 𝘌𝘯𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘓𝘢𝘯𝘨𝘶𝘢𝘨𝘦. #booksky sloopie72.wordpress.com/2026/10/13/d...

sloopie72.wordpress.comDianne Hales: La Bella Lingua: My Love Affair with Italian, The World’s Most Enchanting Language (Broadway Books, 2009) [IBR2026]Italians say that someone who acquires a new language “possesses” it. In my case, Italian possesses me. With Italian racing like blood through my veins, I do indeed see with different eyes, hear wi…
Karen Carlson
@sloopie72.bsky.social

Very happy about this - sure, that's an hour I'll never get back, but it's Saturday morning and the chores are done. I solved the daily #CluesBySam, Oct 10th 2026 (Hard), in less than 67 minutes 🟩🟩🟩🟩 🟩🟩🟩🟩 🟩🟩🟩🟩 🟩🟩🟩🟩 🟩🟩🟩🟩

Karen Carlson
@sloopie72.bsky.social

Pushcart 2026 L: Wrapping Up Year 50 It was a very good year - thank you, @pushcartprize.bsky.social . Here's a list of my favorites. Oh, and I have a few questions for readers of these posts... #PushcartPrize2026 sloopie72.wordpress.com/2026/10/08/p...

sloopie72.wordpress.comPushcart 2026 L: Wrapping Up Year 50Here are 77 brilliant selections from 62 presses, plus lists of special mentions. Our devotion extends to all of the editors and writers worldwide who helped to gather this Small Good Thing, our 50…
Karen Carlson
@sloopie72.bsky.social

"Adulthood is mostly lies and mistakes until the lies and mistakes become something else." Thoughts on reading Dave Newman's short story “The Last Thing That Happened Before I Became a Med Tech” from #PushcartPrize2026 sloopie72.wordpress.com/2026/10/06/p...

sloopie72.wordpress.comPushcart 2026 L: Dave Newman, “The Last Thing that Happened Before I Became a Med Tech” from New World Writing Quarterly, January 2024Adrian Bradbury: Wrestling With Myself I ran into Dawn Reedy at the Big Lots in Beckley. We’d dated when we were teenagers but I hadn’t seen her since high school. I was buying canned pasta. I was …
Karen Carlson
@sloopie72.bsky.social

"Why am I impelled to design the poem this way?" Thoughts on reading Dana Levin's essay about learning to write poetry, "Lessons of the Line," from #PushcartPrize2026 sloopie72.wordpress.com/2026/10/04/p...

sloopie72.wordpress.comPushcart 2026 L: Dana Levin, “Lessons of the Line” (non-fiction) from The Yale Review #112.1Gary Waters: Illustration of woman reading book near clouds As for craft: I had arrived on campus as a sophomore in 1984 with a love for the music of T. S. Eliot, from his Practical Cats (1939) to …
Karen Carlson
@sloopie72.bsky.social

I solved the daily #CluesBySam, Sep 29th 2026 (Medium), in less than 11 minutes - if only the week ended on Tuesday I'd have a perfect record! 🟩🟩🟩🟩 🟩🟩🟩🟩 🟩🟩🟩🟩 🟩🟩🟩🟩 🟩🟩🟩🟩

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Karen Carlson
@sloopie72.bsky.social

2 mistakes on a tricky one, not too bad I solved the daily #CluesBySam, Oct 1st 2026 (Tricky), in less than 25 minutes 🟩🟩🟩🟩 🟩🟩🟩🟩 🟩🟩🟩🟩 🟩🟨🟨🟩 🟩🟩🟩🟩

Karen Carlson
@sloopie72.bsky.social

Whoa - I'm kinda proud of this one! I solved the daily #CluesBySam, Oct 3rd 2026 (Hard), in less than 37 minutes 🟩🟩🟩🟨 🟩🟩🟩🟩 🟩🟩🟩🟩 🟩🟩🟩🟩 🟩🟩🟩🟩

Karen Carlson
@sloopie72.bsky.social

"The frame changes everything." Thoughts and feelings on reading Wendy Brenner's wonderful article, “Don’t Bleed on the Artwork: Notes From the Afterlife” from #PushcartPrize2026 sloopie72.wordpress.com/2026/10/02/p...

sloopie72.wordpress.comPushcart 2026 L: Wendy Brenner, “Don’t Bleed on the Artwork: Notes From the Afterlife” (non-fiction) from Oxford American #124We are not a museum, just a tiny, scruffy, neighborhood frame shop in Evanston, Illinois, a Chicago suburb known for Northwestern University and the Mitchell Museum of the American Indian, for its …
Karen Carlson
@sloopie72.bsky.social

"My father was able to find a rhythm in those plates that he had lost everywhere else." Thoughts on reading Francine Witte's flash fiction story, "Plate Spinner" from #PushcartPrize2026 sloopie72.wordpress.com/2026/09/30/p...

sloopie72.wordpress.comPushcart 2026 L: Francine Witte, “Plate Spinner” (non-fiction) from  New World Writing Quarterly, April 2024I was probably eleven when my father started spinning plates. He’d been watching The Ed Sullivan Show and in between Petula Clark and Sergio Franchi, there was a man, all tuxed-up, spinning fifteen…
Karen Carlson
@sloopie72.bsky.social

I solved the daily #CluesBySam, Sep 29th 2026 (Medium), in less than 11 minutes - if only the week ended on Tuesday I'd have a perfect record! 🟩🟩🟩🟩 🟩🟩🟩🟩 🟩🟩🟩🟩 🟩🟩🟩🟩 🟩🟩🟩🟩

Karen Carlson
@sloopie72.bsky.social

I solved the daily #CluesBySam, Sep 30th 2026 (Medium), in less than 26 minutes - not too bad 🟩🟨🟩🟩 🟩🟩🟩🟩 🟩🟩🟡🟩 🟩🟩🟩🟩 🟩🟩🟩🟩

Karen Carlson
@sloopie72.bsky.social

"Hard to know how much of a fuckup you are until you try to stop being one." Thoughts on reading Clint Bentley's excellent short story, "Cairn" from #PushcartPrize2026 sloopie72.wordpress.com/2026/09/28/p...

sloopie72.wordpress.comPushcart 2026 L: Clint Bentley, “Cairn” from The Iowa Review #54.1James Perkins had just killed his goats. Forty-seven in all. But for the two bulls, every one had been born right there on his property, and even though he was a rancher and they were stock, he lov…

Karen Carlson reposted

Ken Jennings
@kenjennings.bsky.social

There's a new one on tonight. I'm not sure you have time to catch up on the previous 9,400 episodes, so it might be hard to follow.

Pizza Logs@shadesofoffside.bsky.social

Never seen an episode of jeopardy. I hear it's good

Karen Carlson
@sloopie72.bsky.social

"While I'm writing I lift away from my body, have no discomforts, no ominous little pinches of pain. I pass into my words." Thoughts on reading Ted Kooser's essay, "Whistling Past the Graveyard" from #PushcartPrize2026 sloopie72.wordpress.com/2026/09/24/p...

sloopie72.wordpress.comPushcart 2026 L: Ted Kooser, “Whistling Past the Graveyard” (non-fiction) from New Letters #90.3-4Ashvin Harrison: Tree of Optimism I live in the aftermath of cancer, the green reforestation period after the great fire, the brown high-water line drying to dust on the siding after the hundred-ye…
Karen Carlson
@sloopie72.bsky.social

Holy Moses, I have been deceived. Cara Cara Oranges are not easy to peel. (They are, however, delicious, and that makes them worth the fight, at least until mandarins come back in stock)

Karen Carlson
@sloopie72.bsky.social

“But what about the rivers themselves? How do we hear from the rivers on their own behalf?” Thoughts on reading Wendy Willis' essay on including nature in our plans, "From Hedge to Hedge" from #PushcartPrize2026 sloopie72.wordpress.com/2026/09/22/p...

sloopie72.wordpress.comPushcart 2026 L: Wendy Willis, “From Hedge to Hedge” (non-fiction) from Oregon Humanities, Summer 2024During normal daylight hours, I work with and for other kinds of people. Specifically, I direct a statewide community engagement program that connects Oregonians—particularly those that have been e…
Karen Carlson
@sloopie72.bsky.social

"Like she couldn't stop smiling if she wanted to." Thoughts on reading Amy Lee Lillard's short fiction "Typical Girls" from #PushcartPrize2026 . Not a screaming success, imho. sloopie72.wordpress.com/2026/09/16/p...

sloopie72.wordpress.comPushcart 2026 L: Amy Lee Lillard, “Typical Girls” from Exile in Guyville (BOA 2024)One by one, the hotel guests got the look. They’d come to Cherie’s concierge desk, eyes nearly crossed, listening to the voice in their head. And when they tried to pair with Cherie, an…
Karen Carlson
@sloopie72.bsky.social

"Where might this end? Did he actually know anything about literary quality? Did he know anything about anything at all?" Thoughts on reading Jane Delury's short ficton, "Goodbye, Raymond Carver" from #PushcartPrize2026 sloopie72.wordpress.com/2026/09/14/p...

sloopie72.wordpress.comPushcart 2026 L: Jane Delury, “Goodbye, Raymond Carver” from Ploughshares #160Sujit Das: A Boy on the Way Nick almost hit the boy. He’d been driving down Burns Avenue on his way to teach a class about a story in which a boy is hit by a car. His mind was empty, an unfamiliar …
Karen Carlson
@sloopie72.bsky.social

FINALLY got one without any hints! Ok, so it's an easy one, but still... I solved the daily #CluesBySam, Sep 14th 2026 (Easy), in less than 7 minutes 🟩🟩🟩🟩 🟩🟩🟩🟩 🟩🟩🟩🟩 🟩🟩🟩🟩 🟩🟩🟩🟩 cluesbysam.com

cluesbysam.comClues by SamA daily logic puzzle where you deduce who is a criminal!
Karen Carlson@sloopie72.bsky.social

Added CluesBySam to my daily lineup. If I keep this up, all I'll do every day is games: Duolingo, WebBoggle, Tightrope, Wordle, MapTap, Strands, Connections, Loop, Worldle, Categories, ThursGeo, Clues by Sam.

Karen Carlson
@sloopie72.bsky.social

"I got a letter from the government claiming an easement on my leg." Kim Samek's short story, "Easement" from #PushcartPrize2026 triggered me into an unhinged Aaron Sorkin-level mini-rant. But it's also a fun, if absurd, romance. sloopie72.wordpress.com/2026/09/12/p...

sloopie72.wordpress.comPushcart 2026 L: Kim Samek, “Easement” from Story #20Story art: Jesse Dittmar I got a letter from the government claiming an easement on my leg. I had just moved into this house and must not have looked at the paperwork carefully. A few months later,…
Karen Carlson
@sloopie72.bsky.social

"This was the way of our relationship. I fussed. She cussed." Thoughts on reading Jane Kalu's short fiction, "Sickled", examining the psychological effects of genetic illness on a family, from #PushcartPrize2026 sloopie72.wordpress.com/2026/09/10/p...

sloopie72.wordpress.comPushcart 2026 L: Jane Kalu, “Sickled” from American Short Fiction #79Uche Okeke, Owls, From the Oja Suite, 1962, ink on paper The first time I ever saw an owl was in the backyard of our childhood home in Enugu. That afternoon, my sister Ije stood by the guava tree f…
Karen Carlson
@sloopie72.bsky.social

"I will not tell you // what it says. He taught me loyalty, too." Thoughts on reading Michael Mark's poem "Devotion": first it scared me, then it broke my heart. From #PushcartPrize2026 sloopie72.wordpress.com/2026/09/08/p...

sloopie72.wordpress.comPushcart 2026 L: Michael Mark, “Devotion” (poetry) from Birmingham Poetry Review  #51Because no tools can be carried on the plane, I buy them at the Home Depot near his apartment and sneak into my father’s building through the Service Only entrance. Dad’s Ford has more dents. One o…
Karen Carlson
@sloopie72.bsky.social

So I thought I'd catch up on Project Runway. Even without Tim Gunn, how bad could it be? Um... The merger with Ru Paul's Drag Race was more of an exaggeration than a pivot, but... the eczema challenge? Tim Gunn, count your blessings.

Karen Carlson
@sloopie72.bsky.social

"All of us were negotiating an informational world without algorithmic search engines." Thoughts on reading Stephen Akey's essay, “The Department of Everything” about his work as a NYPL telephone reference librarian, from #PushcartPrize2026 sloopie72.wordpress.com/2026/09/06/p...

sloopie72.wordpress.comPushcart 2026 L: Stephen Akey, “The Department of Everything” (non-fiction) from The Hedgehog Review, Summer 2024THR illustration: a reference desk in a Michigan library, 1980s, AADL.org. How do you find the life expectancy of a California condor? Google it. Or the gross national product of Morocco? Google i…
Karen Carlson
@sloopie72.bsky.social

Added CluesBySam to my daily lineup. If I keep this up, all I'll do every day is games: Duolingo, WebBoggle, Tightrope, Wordle, MapTap, Strands, Connections, Loop, Worldle, Categories, ThursGeo, Clues by Sam.

NPR@npr.org

NPR's Linda Holmes is a daily puzzle devotee. She recommends games that will test your knowledge of geography, history, and even the most obscure corners of Wikipedia. n.pr/3UwxNWF

n.prIf you prefer puzzles to doomscrolling, here are 5 great games to check outNPR's Linda Holmes is a daily puzzle devotee. She recommends games that will test your knowledge of geography, history, and even the most obscure corners of Wikipedia.
Karen Carlson
@sloopie72.bsky.social

“Actually, I’d rather talk about the shadow that isn’t quite so much a shadow.” Thoughts on reading "The Widow's Tale" by Richard Bausch, a short story about loss told with a subtle twist of humor. sloopie72.wordpress.com/2026/09/04/p...

sloopie72.wordpress.comPushcart 2026 L: Richard Bausch, “The Widow’s Tale” from Ploughshares, Winter 2023/2024Illustration of a table-turning séance from Félix Roubaud’s 1853 text, Les Danse des Tables Whenever Susan Bridge heard friends or family talk of inklings from the other side, or of being watched o…
The Pushcart Prize@pushcartprize.bsky.social

THE PUSHCART PRIZE EDITORS CONGRATULATE ANGELA BALL,ANDREI CODRESCU , RICHARD BAUSCH FOR WORK FROM COLUMBIA REVIEW,LIVE MAG ! AND PLOUGHSHARES FEATURED IN PPL, 2026 EDITION , NOW AT YOUR LOCAL BOOKSTORE, BOOKSHOP OR W.W.NORTON CO.

Karen Carlson
@sloopie72.bsky.social

"Not enough people know about Nagi, so maybe you should write about him and not about the storm." Thoughts on reading Yxta Maya Murray's short story "Lords of the Wind" from #PushcartPrize2026 sloopie72.wordpress.com/2026/09/02/p...

sloopie72.wordpress.comPushcart 2026 L: Yxta Maya Murray, “Lords of the Wind” from Conjunctions #82Photo by Sam Chase, U.S. Geological Survey: “a huge dust plume rising like a gigantic mile-high wave over the southern San Joaquin Valley in December 1977.” You want me to tell you abou…
The Pushcart Prize@pushcartprize.bsky.social

THE PUSHCART PRIZE EDITORS CONGRATULATE KATHY CHAO, RANDY F. NELSON AND YXTA MAYA MURRAY FOR WORK FEATURED IN PPL, 2026 EDITION, FROM GEORGIA REVIEW, PLOUGHSHARES, AND CONJUNCTIONS, NOW AT YOUR INDEPENDENT BOOKSTORE, BOOKSHOP OR W.W. NORTON & CO.

Karen Carlson
@sloopie72.bsky.social

"It's nothing but fog until you make it into something. " Thoughts on reading Randy F. Nelson's beautiful story, "Hover O’er Me With Your Wings” from #PushcartPrize2026 sloopie72.wordpress.com/2026/08/30/p...

sloopie72.wordpress.comPushcart 2026 L: Randy F. Nelson, “Hover O’er Me With Your Wings” from Ploughshares #160Back then, everybody smoked. I knew guys who could jump-start a Zippo lighter just by snapping their fingers. People smoked in restaurants, movie theaters, airplanes, trains, college classrooms, fu…
The Pushcart Prize@pushcartprize.bsky.social

THE PUSHCART PRIZE EDITORS CONGRATULATE KATHY CHAO, RANDY F. NELSON AND YXTA MAYA MURRAY FOR WORK FEATURED IN PPL, 2026 EDITION, FROM GEORGIA REVIEW, PLOUGHSHARES, AND CONJUNCTIONS, NOW AT YOUR INDEPENDENT BOOKSTORE, BOOKSHOP OR W.W. NORTON & CO.